| Discussion Forum: Thread 291517 |
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| | | Author: | alexbinary  | | Posted: | Jun 18, 2021 05:50 | | Subject: | Let's think about LEGO storage solutions | | Viewed: | 228 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| I have a growing collection of LEGO parts and I am still looking for the perfect
storage solution.
Lately I have been thinking about designing my own set of storage solutions,
and this is kind of a market study to see if there is a real need for new LEGO
storage solutions.
I would appreciate it if as many people as possible would take the time to answer
the following questions:
1. What do you use to store your LEGO parts?
2. Are you happy with it? Why/Why not?
3. What do you expect from a good storage solution?
Thanks for your participation!
Below are my answers:
1. What do you use to store your LEGO parts?
I use Papimax StackX, I have 46 of them.
Website: https://papimax.com/
Seems to be discontinued now.
2. Are you happy with it? Why/Why not?
Upsides:
- light, compact and space efficient
- the modular and stackable design allows one to build a storage module that
adapts to the available space while being strong and stable
- the drawers can be easily taken away on to the construction area, and this
also allows to easily reconfigure the storage by swapping drawers with one another
- compartments have an ideal size, not to small, not too big, and it is possible
to remove dividers to create largers compartments
Downsides:
- not cheap
- made of plastic
- construction and materials feel cheap and low quality, the drawers don't
always slide smoothly, the dividers tend to let parts creep out underneeth from
their compartment to the ones next to it
- cannot take away individual compartments, have to take the whole drawer or
nothing
- cannot move compartments, if you want to reorganize your parts you have to
pick up the parts and put them in another compartment, can be tedious
3. What do you expect from a good storage solution?
- modular, lets me build a storage module that adapts to my available space and
that I can extend and reconfigure as my storage need and stragey evolve
- compartments of different sizes, and I can create custom layouts easily
- I can take away only the compartments with the parts I want, and I can easily
reconfigure the storage layout without having to pick up parts and throw them
in another compartment
- construction and materials feel strong and good quality, mecanics (if any)
are smooth and reliable
- looks nice and environement friendly
- I don't really care about the price if it does all of the above
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| | | | | Author: | hpoort | | Posted: | Jun 18, 2021 06:50 | | Subject: | Re: Let's think about LEGO storage solutions | | Viewed: | 80 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, alexbinary writes:
| | I have a growing collection of LEGO parts and I am still looking for the perfect
storage solution.
Lately I have been thinking about designing my own set of storage solutions,
and this is kind of a market study to see if there is a real need for new LEGO
storage solutions.
I would appreciate it if as many people as possible would take the time to answer
the following questions:
1. What do you use to store your LEGO parts?
2. Are you happy with it? Why/Why not?
3. What do you expect from a good storage solution?
Thanks for your participation!
|
My storage is for building, not for selling, which should make a huge difference
in how to efficiently store.
Essential is to have removable containers when you store loose bricks. If you
need more than a few parts from the container, just tip it over. Much easier
picking from a surface than out of a tight container.
As a builder, the same goes for the drawers: easy to take out, easy to spread
out around.
On the picture it is all home made from paper and wood. Upto 65 matchbox sized
containers in a single drawer. I uses various sizes to adjust for amount and
part size. Inside the bigger drawers I use the bottom 5 cm (2 inch) of empty
Tetrapack cartons. 20 or more in a single drawer. Overflow in zipbags in 40 liter
plastic containers.
The smaller drawers in the left of the image proved not to be as versatile as
the wide drawers with loose containers.
If you need more ideas, similar questions popup frequently on the forum with
lots of response. So you just for them.
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| | | | | | | Author: | VOTB | | Posted: | Jun 18, 2021 10:52 | | Subject: | Re: Let's think about LEGO storage solutions | | Viewed: | 63 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| This is the closest I have seen someone do that I have in my head. It is nice
to see one done to visualize. It looks to me like you used some angle metal
as drawer slides. Am I correct in that the whole drawer can come out and move
to your work station if needed?
I am impressed by the paper containers. I don't have the skill or patience
for that. But I do have a 3D printer.
Thanks for sharing
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | hpoort | | Posted: | Jun 18, 2021 11:25 | | Subject: | Re: Let's think about LEGO storage solutions | | Viewed: | 59 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, VOTB writes:
| | This is the closest I have seen someone do that I have in my head. It is nice
to see one done to visualize. It looks to me like you used some angle metal
as drawer slides. Am I correct in that the whole drawer can come out and move
to your work station if needed?
I am impressed by the paper containers. I don't have the skill or patience
for that. But I do have a 3D printer.
Thanks for sharing
|
The 'angle metal' is actually PVC 25x25x2 mm profiles. This proved to
be strong enough for this purpose and slides better. But yes, it is a very simple
but effective design: a sheet of triplex but pine strips 7x27 mm or 7x55 mm glued
around and finished with a router bit. Just a tray with boxes. Usually when I
am building, these drawers quickly get spread out on the floor around me. They
are numbered now, so they are easy to put them back at the end of the day.
These paper containers are indeed slightly labor intensive, especially when gradually
filling 100 drawers with 30-65 containers each. Not as much work as figuring
out which LEGO to put where.
You might collect match boxes instead or other remnants from supermarket packaging.
The storage slowly grew from a few boxed and 10 trays/drawers, to around 200
in 9 cabinets now.
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| | | | | Author: | StephenB76 | | Posted: | Jun 18, 2021 06:52 | | Subject: | Re: Let's think about LEGO storage solutions | | Viewed: | 73 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, alexbinary writes:
| |
1. What do you use to store your LEGO parts?
2. Are you happy with it? Why/Why not?
3. What do you expect from a good storage solution?
Thanks for your participation!
|
I'm not a store but have a massive collection.
1) I use a variety of containers (I don't tend to separate colours) I use
old 900ml Plastic Ice Cream tubs for some of the smaller but larger quantity
parts for other 1 x1 and 1 x 2 parts i use these or similar https://www.stanleytools.co.uk/products/detail/Products/STORAGE/Organisers+_+bins/STANLEY%C2%AE+Sortmaster+Junior+BlkfwdslashYel
I also use old plastic sweet tubs and some of the boxes that Lego basic or creator
brick sets came in
2) It is doing it's job however definitely think there could be better options
my main issue is space constraints and ease of searching for parts when looking
to work on a set
3) needs to be easy to move parts around when the quantity changes to utilise
space best, needs to be easily labelled for different sections and for those
labels to be secure but movable as well. to optimise the space available
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| | | | | Author: | BrickCollection | | Posted: | Jun 18, 2021 09:16 | | Subject: | Re: Let's think about LEGO storage solutions | | Viewed: | 73 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, alexbinary writes:
| | I have a growing collection of LEGO parts and I am still looking for the perfect
storage solution.
Lately I have been thinking about designing my own set of storage solutions,
and this is kind of a market study to see if there is a real need for new LEGO
storage solutions.
I would appreciate it if as many people as possible would take the time to answer
the following questions:
1. What do you use to store your LEGO parts?
2. Are you happy with it? Why/Why not?
3. What do you expect from a good storage solution?
Thanks for your participation!
Below are my answers:
1. What do you use to store your LEGO parts?
I use Papimax StackX, I have 46 of them.
Website: https://papimax.com/
Seems to be discontinued now.
2. Are you happy with it? Why/Why not?
Upsides:
- light, compact and space efficient
- the modular and stackable design allows one to build a storage module that
adapts to the available space while being strong and stable
- the drawers can be easily taken away on to the construction area, and this
also allows to easily reconfigure the storage by swapping drawers with one another
- compartments have an ideal size, not to small, not too big, and it is possible
to remove dividers to create largers compartments
Downsides:
- not cheap
- made of plastic
- construction and materials feel cheap and low quality, the drawers don't
always slide smoothly, the dividers tend to let parts creep out underneeth from
their compartment to the ones next to it
- cannot take away individual compartments, have to take the whole drawer or
nothing
- cannot move compartments, if you want to reorganize your parts you have to
pick up the parts and put them in another compartment, can be tedious
3. What do you expect from a good storage solution?
- modular, lets me build a storage module that adapts to my available space and
that I can extend and reconfigure as my storage need and stragey evolve
- compartments of different sizes, and I can create custom layouts easily
- I can take away only the compartments with the parts I want, and I can easily
reconfigure the storage layout without having to pick up parts and throw them
in another compartment
- construction and materials feel strong and good quality, mecanics (if any)
are smooth and reliable
- looks nice and environement friendly
- I don't really care about the price if it does all of the above
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I use Harbor Freight storage containers with 40 drawers because they are super
cheap and only cost $15 but I think Harbor Freight is only in the USA so for
everyone else I recommend they check the cheapest hardware store in their area.
Regards,
BrickCollection
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France, Grand Est
Netherlands, Groningen
USA, Oregon
United Kingdom, England
